Changeover

A changeover is the process of switching a production line from making one product to another.

A plant often produces several products on a single line, such as different flavours, colours, scents or pack sizes. When the product changes, the line has to be prepared for the new task: emptied of the previous product, often cleaned, fitted with different machine parts (such as change parts for a different bottle size), set to new parameters and started up for the next product.

During a changeover, the line does not produce anything, so every minute means lost output. A changeover also wastes some product, water and cleaning agents. That is why plants try to shorten changeovers and plan production so that there are as few of them as possible. Short changeovers make it cost-effective to produce shorter runs and respond more quickly to customer orders.

Example: A dishwashing liquid plant finishes a run of lemon dishwashing liquid in 500 ml bottles and is about to start mint dishwashing liquid in 1 l bottles. The changeover involves emptying and cleaning the pipes and tanks, replacing parts of the filling machine and capper to fit the larger bottle, selecting the new recipe in the control system and checking the first bottles of the new run. Only then does the line return to production.